during its decline. Because in either case (ascendancy or decline) there will be some restrictions, costs to pay, and some people will suffer because of that. Yet, in its decline, there is a chance, opportunity and possibility of the born of a new civilization and elimination of dysfunctional elements from the previous one. Sounds more exciting to me.
i would like to survive the transition, taking the knowledge i gained from what was and putting it to use regenerating something much better.
during its decline. For a stupid reason and it probably makes no sense, but during a civilizations ascendancy, everything is being created, invented...its when all the hard work is being done. I like having everything already done.